Özet

In August 2011 the Turkish prime minister Tayyib Erdoğan arrived in Somalia with a substantial delegation consisting of his family, ministers, and civil society activists, along with Turkish celebrities, to highlight the need for greater famine relief. In Mogadishu, Erdoğan declared that the tragedy of Somalia is a test of civilization and contemporary values. For any long-term observer of Turkish interest in Africa, this visit seemed natural—an upshot of Turkey’s aspiration to become a regional power that “displays a superiority in terms of power capabilities and exerts inﬂuence on shaping the regional order.” Turkey’s interest in becoming a regional power in Africa and its strategy in the region warrant analysis. As Tom Wheeler notes, many factors shape the development of Turkey-Africa relations, including for example, the assistance to African countries by Turkish government agencies and non-governmental Turkish religious and development-focused organizations. In addition to Turkey’s relations with Africa, we are interested generally in theories of the strategies regional powers employ to advance their interests in proximate countries. Thus we view the abovementioned factors in the context of these strategies to shed light on Turkey’s growing visibility in Africa. [...]